The Latymer Foundation

Latymer Upper School, like most schools that predate the rise of state funded education, owes its origins to the foresight and generosity of a series of individuals who held the view that wealth brought with it obligations to help those who were less fortunate than themselves.

The Latymer Foundation at Hammersmith has had a long history of supporting education since the original bequest of Edward Latymer in 1624 to provide clothing and education for “eight poore boyes” from Hammersmith.

In 1622 Edward purchased the manor of Butterwick in Fulham, paying £1,600 for the manor’s 88 acres, and the revenues from this estate funded his bequests. The rising value of the endowment of the Latymer Foundation in Hammersmith was further boosted by gifts from other local benefactors until by 1870 the annual income of the Foundation had grown to £604 a year which clothed and educated 125 boys.

£30 18s 11d

was the total income of the Foundation in 1656

Between 1726 and 1863, the Foundation educated girls as well as boys so when Latymer Upper School took girls into its Sixth Form in 1996 it was in fact going back to its roots.

What the Foundation does

The objective of the Latymer Foundation (registered charity no. 312714) is to promote the education of boys and girls by the maintenance of a school or schools in the London Borough of Hammersmith. The Foundation is overseen by its Governing Body led by Rosalind Sweeting, the parent of three Latymerians.

One of the main purposes of the Foundation is to ensure that any child is able to access a Latymer education regardless of their financial circumstances.

Following a period where the focus of the Governors was to regenerate Latymer’s King Street site and its playing fields at Wood Lane, the Governors' current focus is on building up the Foundation’s endowment and significantly increasing the number of bursaries it can award each year.

The Foundation in numbers

The Governors set annual budgets and targets to provide the resources for a continuously improving quality of education at both the Prep and Upper Schools.

Over 2,800 members of the Latymer community have made a donation to the Foundation since the campaign launched in 2014, this includes current and former students and their families, current and former members of staff, Governors and friends of the School

Since 2014, over £1,749,000 has been donated to the Bursaries Appeal by over 2,500 donors

More than 100 students participate in RAISE, the student-led fundraising club, each academic year

There has been a 75% increase in the endowment funds available for bursaries since 2014

1,397 students and over 350 members of staff helped the Latymer Foundation to launch the public phase of the Inspiring Minds campaign in September 2017

18% of Year 7 students starting their school careers in September 2018 receive bursarial support

£650,000 is needed to endow one bursary in perpetuity

£160,000 is required to fund a 100% bursary for a Year 7 pupil from September 2018

150+

pupils across both Latymer Upper School and Latymer Prep are currently benefitting from bursaries

£19m

raised for bursaries since 2005

£5m+

in donations and legacies received during 2016/17

£2.0m+

spent on bursaries and scholarships last year

250+

young people have been educated at Latymer since 2004 thanks to a bursary funded by the Foundation